The future of pharmaceutical care in Malaysia: Pharmacy students’ perspectives
Keywords:
Attitude, Malaysia, Perception, Pharmaceutical Care, Pharmacy StudentsAbstract
Objective: To investigate the attitudes of pharmacy students toward pharmaceutical care (PC), perceptions of their preparedness level and barriers to the provision of PC in Malaysia.
Methods: A cross-sectional study conducted on third and fourth-year pharmacy students of International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM). The main instrument used was standard Pharmaceutical Care Attitudes Survey (PCAS) with minor modifications for local suitability. A pilot study conducted and reliability and validity of the modified instrument assessed. SPSS, version 21 was used for data analysis.
Results: Reliability coefficient computed to be 0.897. The total number of students was 227. Overall the response rate was 95.05%. Interestingly, all the student pharmacists reported a positive attitude towards the practice of PC. Most student pharmacists stated good perceptions of preparedness towards the provision of PC with the overall mean scores rating of 3.0. The majority agreed on the importance of all PC activities and perceived that lack of physicians' trust/ confidence in the pharmacists' abilities is a major barrier to providing PC in Malaysia.
Conclusion: Pharmacy students reflected positive attitudes and perceptions towards PC. Students felt favourable in practicing clinical PC activities rather than administrative ones. Lack of physicians’ trust or confidence in the pharmacists’ abilities was identified as a major barrier to the implementation of PC. This can be improved through better use of inter-professional education which is a first step in generating collaborative practice-oriented workforce.
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